Winnipeggers repeat as Canadian champions

Winnipeg pair skaters Ava Kemp and Yohnatan Elizarov are now two-time Canadian junior champions after successfully defending their title Friday despite being sidelined by injury for several months earlier this season.

It was the second time in as many days that Winnipeggers have landed on the podium at the 2025 Canadian figure skating championships, held in Laval, Que. David Howes pocketed bronze in junior men’s competition on Thursday.

“I had a lot of fun here this week. I think that’s a good thing coming back from injury, you really appreciate these things,” said Kemp, who had to build back slowly after injuring her back last summer.

On the heels of their impressive Succession short program the day before, Kemp, 16, and Elizarov, 21, channeled their inner Freddie Mercury in Friday’s final skate to Bohemian Rhapsody. It wasn’t the dream performance the perfectionists in them had hoped for, but they proved to be the class of the field with their superior technical difficulty, skating skills and overall quality.

“Just competing again is a good feeling. Yeah, the performance wasn’t what we wanted, but we’re both really, really competitive, so competing is what we’re both happy about,” said Elizarov, who had declared his intention to repeat as Canadian champion last month after winning the nationals qualifier in Winnipeg.

“I’m a little disappointed. I think I could have performed a little better. We’ve been practising really, really well with this program. We know we can do it, we’ve just got to do it in competition.”

The duo, who has trained in Toronto the past two seasons, made good on a promise to upgrade their individual and throw jumps from doubles to triples between the Challenge event and Canadians, although the execution of those elements wasn’t perfect. Kemp fought to hold on to less-than-perfect landings on the throws. Elizarov doubled his salchow.

“It would have been nice to win with a (better) skate, but you can’t ask too much,” Kemp said.

Elizarov grudgingly agreed. “This is our second competition of the season and we have everything (in the program) now, so I guess we should be giving ourselves a break.”

The pair, who built a nine-point cushion in the opener, put even more distance between themselves and their nearest rivals in the final. Their total score of 159.39 was more than13 points clear of second place finishers Martina Ariano-Kent and Charly Laliberté-Laurent (145.94).

The Quebec couple, who also missed the first half of the season while he recovered from shoulder surgery, have climbed the international ranks alongside Kemp and Elizarov.

Bronze went to Julia Quattrochi and Simon Desmarais, also from Quebec, on 139.97.

Only five duos competed in the junior pairs competition but, notably, the three medallists have all landed on podiums around the world and qualified for the ISU’s prestigious junior Grand Prix final.

With the win, Kemp and Elizarov were confident on Monday they would be one of three pairs assigned to compete for Canada at the junior world championships in Hungary the last week of February. The Winnipeg duo ranked sixth in two previous appearances at the global meet.

Kemp and Elizarov won’t have much time to savour their third national title (they were also the 2022 novice-level champs) since they are slated to compete again in five days at the Bavarian Open in Oberstdorf, Germany, their first international meet in almost a year.

They were to return to Toronto late Friday, fly to Germany on Monday and compete Wednesday. Ariano-Kent and Laliberté-Laurent will also make that trip.

“We’ll be using next week as a building experience on what we did (in Laval), especially for the long (program),” advised Kemp.

Elizarov added, “It’s just to give us the feeling of international competition, what the travelling feels like to get us ready if we’re going to worlds.”

Dauphin’s Breken Brezden will be the last of the Manitoba contingent to compete at the 2025 championships in Laval when she takes the ice for the senior women’s event on Saturday and Sunday.